User-generated censorship : manipulating the maps of social media
Name
858280891-MIT.pdf
Description
Full printable version
Size
1.35 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
34083e463ffe55e9b5ee93809c2a837b
Author(s)
Peterson, Christopher E., S.M. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Advisor(s)
Ian Condry.
Date Issued
2013
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
The last decade has seen the rise of new technologies for making information more broadly available and accessible. Variously called 'user-generated content,' 'social media,''social news,' 'crowd-curation,' and so on, these design conventions, algorithmic arrangements, and user practices have been widely praised for 'democratizing' media by lowering the barriers to publishing, accrediting, and aggregating information. Intermediary platforms like Facebook, reddit, and Twitter, among others, are generally expected to elicit valuable knowledge through the algorithmic filtering mechanisms broadly distributed among their users. This thesis investigates user-generated censorship: an emergent mode of intervention by which users strategically manipulate social media to suppress speech. It shows that the tools designed to help make information more available have been repurposed and reversed to make it less available. Case studies reveal that these platforms, far from being neutral pipes through which information merely travels, are in fact contingent sociotechnical systems upon and through which users effect their politics through the power of algorithms. By strategically pulling the levers which make links to sites more or less visible, users recompose the representations of the world produced by social media, altering pathways of access and availability and changing the flow of information. This thesis incorporates insights from media studies, sociology, law and policy, information science, and science-technology studies to study user-generated censorship. It contributes to a broader conversation now emerging across fields which seeks to explore and understand the politics of our developing social media systems.
Description
Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Comparative Media Studies, 2013.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. Vita.
Includes bibliographical references.
Subjects
Comparative Media Studies.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Program in Comparative Media Studies/Writing
Terms of Use
M.I.T. theses are protected by
copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but
reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written
permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.
copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but
reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written
permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.
Persistent DSpace Link
